page_title: Ed Musick
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ed Musick / Biography / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover flown and autographed by PAA Capt. Edwin Musick on the first northbound flight of FAM 4 from Havana, Cuba, to Key West, Florida. October 29, 1927 (The Cooper Collections)
context_page_description: Edwin Charles Musick was Chief Pilot for Pan American World Airways and pioneered many of Pan Am's transoceanic routes including the famous route across the Pacific Ocean on the China Clipper.
context_section_description: After attending an air show at Dominguez Field in January 1910, Musick built his first airplane with friends in 1912; it reached an altitude of 9 feet (2.7 m) and promptly crashed.  In 1913, he learned to fly aircraft at a flight school in Los Angeles and began flying as an exhibition pilot in 1915. In June 1917 he joined the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps (later called the United States Army Air Service) in San Diego as a flight instructor for the duration of World War I, and was later transferred to airfields in Wichita Falls, Texas, and Miami, Florida. He then accepted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Marine Flying Corps on August 28, 1918 at Miami, Florida. After the war, he founded his own flying school in Florida and surpassed the 10,000 flying hours mark.
  Musick also flew for several airlines starting in 1920–21: Aeromarine Airways, where he studied navigation, and Mitten Air Transport, shuttling between Philadelphia and Washington DC. In October 1927, Musick joined Pan American as it was just starting operations. He made the company's inaugural mail flight to Havana, Cuba from Key West, Florida, on October 28 of that year. Musick was promoted to chief pilot for Pan American's Caribbean Division in 1930.
  In 1934, Musick was chosen to make the trial flights for the new Sikorsky S-42 flying boat. During these stringent test flights, Musick collected 10 world records for seaplanes; one of the test flights was a non-stop flight of 1,250 miles (2,010 km).
caption: Cuban franked Air Mail cover flown and autographed by PAA Capt. Edwin Musick on the first northbound flight of FAM 4 from Havana to Key West, Florida. October 29, 1927
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